Discuss The “Condors vs. Lead Bullets” TV Story
Once hunted to the brink of extinction, with only 20 birds left in the wild, California condors have slowly began recovering in number after 25 years of careful breeding and scientific work to reintroduce them to the wild. There are now more than 200 condors in California. But as more of them fly free, the birds, whose 9-foot wingspan makes them the largest bird in North America, are turning up dead in increasing numbers, killed by lead poisoning.
Condors are scavengers. They eat dead animals. When hunters shoot deer, wild pigs and other game, they often leave the animals, or parts of the animals, out in the wild. Condors then feed off the dead critters, ingesting lead from the bullets. Scientists have tried voluntary programs to convince hunters in Northern California to remove their kills, or to use other ammunition. But other bullets cost more and don’t fly as well, hunters say. This year, a bill to ban lead ammo in the condor range from the Bay Area to Santa Barbara died in the Legislature under pressure from hunting groups. We follow the biologists who work around-the-clock to bring condors back to the wild, including the operations to save their lives and purge their bodies of lead when they end up on the wrong end of a bullet.
Condors vs. Lead Bullets and Genetic Testing (episode #103) airs tonight on QUEST at 7:30pm on KQED 9, and KQED HD, Comcast 709. (full schedule)
You may also view the entire Condors vs. Lead Bullets segment online.
Chris Bauer is a Segment Producer for television on QUEST, and is the producer for this story.
Visit the Oakland Museum of California’s Natural Sciences Gallery special exhibition: BRINGING THE CONDORS HOME.
through April 15, 2007.
Programs -
Author John Moir, Return of the Condor, lecture and booksigning: Friday April 6 7 pm free
Family Condor Day with live peregrine falcon program, art and science activities and condor exhibit tours: Sunday April 1, noon-5 pm
Another incomplete Condor story. The truth is that while lead is one problem, more Condors die from electrocution and the mindless ingestion of items like pull tabs, broken glass, plastic beads, auto coolant, etc. than from lead ingestion. This bird, whose presence I do not begrudge but who is one of the least intelligent, cannot survive without the captive breeding program because its ecological nitch is gone and it does not have the instincts required to survive in developed areas. The Condor flourished during the mega-fauna era and is failing now precisely because the animals and ecological conditions it evolved with are now gone. It is telling that the prolific Turkey Vulture has no problems in the same environments where the Condor is failing because it is a more adapted bird to modern conditions, not to mention much more intelligent and with much more self-protective instincts. There is a lot of money and energy being consumed in the futile rescue of a species that truely has outlived its time that could be used for other endangered but not obsolete species. Let’s let this poor bird join its ancestors in peace. Species extinction, like new species mutation, is a on-going natural process that has not gone away inspite of our desire to play God with wildlife in the 21st century.
The California condor is a true survivor. Few species have taken as many blows as they have and remain in existence. Condors have been discriminated against, albeit mostly unintentionally, for as long as people have inhabited the Western United States. It has taken a great deal of time to expose the truth about lead ammunition, but indeed it is the primary source of exposure. No other source has been identified either and given the tendency of lead to fragment into hundreds of pieces it’s not difficult to understand this exposure pathway. Now the number of deaths caused by lead poisoning number 13 – the highest source of mortality. With this new knowledge spreading, responsible hunters are making a simple switch from lead ammunition to nonlead alternatives. After all, it is only a few dollars more relative to the total cost of the hunt. We have removed lead from food containers, paint, gasoline, and many other products. It shouldn’t be a surprise that lead ammunition is being considered now for restrictions. Nearly all birds, not just the condor, have been around for thousands of years. For some unjustified reason, some people like to think that the condor is somehow no longer fit for this modern world, but the reality is the condor is just a big bird that is being killed off. Imagine a demographic of people that are discriminated against and deprived of access to education, for example. Wouldn’t it be wrong to say these people have no use in society and that they are stupid? The condor has been kicked around so many times that it is easy to get the wrong impression. This species of bird is actually very intelligent, incredibly social like primates and can live well over 50 years. A survey of hunters in Arizona that used the Barnes-X all copper bullets shows that 93% of the respondents consider it to be as good or better than lead. If you hunt and you switch to nonlead ammunition not only will you be giving the birds a chance, but I think you will also find an exceptionally well performing alternative.
The California Condor’s population crash over the last 100 years was clearly due to human impacts. Originally, shooting and egging were a direct cause of mortality. The secondary impact of poisonong due to predator control efforts was an additional blow to the population. The fact that wildlife conservation biologists were able to heroically turn this near extinction around is a testament to both the human spirit and the condors survivorship.
As a young birder thirty years ago here in California, I had no hope of seeing a condor in the wild in central California. Now I feel so fortunate to be able to almost certainly see condors each time I visit Big Sur and grateful to those biologists that devote their professional lives to the restoration of this species.
As a museum curator, I am pleased to do my part to communicate this incredible success story via a new podcast series at the Oakland Museum of California’s website.
http://www.museumca.org/podcasts/index.html
Our first two podcasts feature Ventana Wildlife Society biologist Joe Burnett. I specifically asked Joe to respond to the critical comment that the California condor may be considered an obsolete species. Please check out this podcast to hear his response.
I would like to address the comments left by Mr. Michael Post. He suggests that more Condors are killed by “electrocution and the mindless ingestion of items like pull tabs, broken glass, plastic beads, auto coolant, etc. than from lead ingestion.” I wonder where Mr. Post gets his statistics - Possibly the bottom of his cereal box. I worked on the first release of California Condors to Arizona and I made a documentary about their conservation story called a ‘Brother Returns’. Noel Snyder, one of the leading authorities on Califonria Condors has for years complained that Lead is the principal factor limiting California Condors. You will be hard pressed to find any biologist that know anything about Condors to disagree.
As for the California Condor being a relic of a “mega fauna” past - The California Condor is no more a relic than is the American Robin or us for that matter. America’s megafauna prospered around 14,000 years ago as did ourselves and nearly all the other species that we know on earth today. - this is only a blink of the evolutionary eye.
Habitat change has never restricted the California Condor either. The reason that Turkey Vultures are much more abundant has more to do with their metabolism than their intelligence. Condors hold food for longer in their crops and so are more susceptible to poisons. Turkey Vultures pass more hair and bone quickly and are less prone to poisoning. Both species are extremely intelligent and I dare say would likely out test Mr. Post on most High School Biology Examinations.
Cheers, James Christian
Walking Safaris Kenya
http://www.karisia.com
A wild California Condor chick recently hatched in a cliff-side nest within the Ventana Wilderness near Big Sur. According to Kelly Sorenson, the Executive Director of The Ventana Wildlife Society, this egg was the first known fertile wild-laid egg in Monterey County in more than a century. Interesting to note, the mother California Condor in this case needed to be recaptured and taken to the L.A. Zoo in 2005 for treatment of lead poisoning. She was re-released in January 2006. Congratulations to the team at Ventana Wildlife Society, along with the researchers at Pinnacles National Monument and all the other condor researchers on the West Coast!
When we visited the Ventana Wilderness I had asked Kelly Sorenson to explain why it seems that the Turkey Vulture does not seem to be affected by lead poisoning. Here is his take from the interview transcripts:
“The main reason why lead poisoning is a much greater problem for the California condor as opposed to the Turkey Vulture is because of the reproductive strategy that the bird has. In comparison to the Turkey vulture for example, a close relative, the turkey vulture can begin to breed much sooner, about half the age, they can raise more than one chick at a time and they can raise chicks every year consecutively. I don’t mean to say lead poisoning doesn’t happen in turkey vultures. It absolutely does! But it doesn’t affect the over-all population like it does with the California Condor because of that differing reproductive rate.”
“Condors reach maturity between 6 and 8 years of age and often times their first successful nesting won’t occur until they are 8 or 9 years of age. They only lay 1 egg at a time. That egg is incubated for nearly 2 months, the chick stays in the nest after hatching for 6 months and then at fledging or when it takes its first flight, it stays with its parent but on the wing, for another 7 or 8 months. So it’s a tremendous amount of parental investment. There are not a whole lot of birds out there who are like that. But see, they balance that out with longevity. Up until this last 100 years a bird would live upwards of 50 years most likely. And could reproduce over and over again in their lifetime and still maintain healthy populations. When you have excessive mortality, which has been the case more recently, it’s very hard for them to keep up.”
“As condors grow older they become more efficient at finding food. So with that comes the greater opportunity for lead exposure, so right when they get to be about breeding age, unfortunately that’s when they are most likely to suffer from lead poisoning and potentially die.”
To learn about how to tell the difference between turkey vultures and California condors see: http://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/see.htm
Interesting link for Hunters: http://condorinfo.org/
For information on lead fragmentation see: http://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/leadinfo.htm
For more information on lead poisoning in humans check out:
http://www.psr.org/site/PageServer?pagename=heavy_metals
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/117/1/227
NEWS RELEASE FROM PINNACLES NATIONAL MONUMENT:
Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release Date: 08/07/2007
Condors Have Highest Recorded Blood Lead Levels
Biologists at Pinnacles National Monument have captured all of the Pinnacles’ flock of California condors, and any Big Sur birds in the area, after observing five condors feeding on a pig carcass shot outside the monument with lead ammunition. Tests revealed that nearly half of the 17 tested condors had elevated lead levels and condors 306, 318, and 242 have blood-lead values indicating lead poisoning, requiring immediate transport to the Los Angeles Zoo for emergency chelation. Chelation is a process for removing heavy metals such as lead from the bloodstream and lead poisoning is defined as levels of lead in a condor’s bloodstream exceeding 40 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (µg/dL). Of the remaining birds tested thus far, 10 had blood lead values indicating they were exposed to lead (15-30 µg/dL). 306 had a blood lead level of 164 µg/dL, the highest recorded for a Pinnacles bird and 242 from Big Sur had a 610 µg/dL reading, the highest recorded in California. “The level of lead found in these condors is alarming not only because they are some of the highest recorded levels but because we are unsure of the extent of developmental and long term health problems resulting from the significant amount of lead they have ingested” explained Court VanTassell, Wildlife Biologist for Pinnacles National Monument.
Pinnacles is assisting the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)in conducting research to identify the pathways for transmission of lead to California condors. Prior research has shown that lead ammunition is a significant source of lead exposure and poisonings in California condors. Biologists observed condors feeding on the carcass of a pig killed by lead bullets. Tissue samples from the pig carcass, the bullets that killed the pig, feather samples from the condors with elevated blood-lead levels, and blood samples from all of the birds suspected of feeding on this carcass were collected and sent to UCSC for analysis and possible identification of the pathway for lead transmission.
The Pinnacles condors may still face health problems because of the elevated levels of lead in their blood. Even in the birds where levels are not high enough to warrant emergency measures, the effects of long term exposure to non-lethal levels remains a significant question for researchers and biologists. Lead in a condor’s bloodstream can be absorbed into its bones, where it can slowly leach back into the blood for an unknown length of time.
The vast majority of research on the health effects of lead exposure is based on humans, but comparisons can be made for animals. When a child’s brain is developing, even low levels of lead in the body can slow the child’s development and cause learning and behavioral problems. It can change the way blood-forming cells work, alter the way nerve cells signal each other, and disturb or destroy the way the brain makes connections for thinking. Lead is also known to be highly toxic to the kidneys and immune systems. Some of the Pinnacles condors are testing at four times the level that would initiate a medical response in humans as outlined by the Center for Disease Control. At this time, the effects of lead exposure on juvenile condors are only measured in mortality rates.
The local community has shown increasing support for the Condor Reintroduction Program. Local ranchers have helped biologists by notifying the park when condors are roosting on their property, voluntarily granting access to private property to allow biologists to better monitor the condors, and some have committed to using non-lead ammunition (or, if using leaded ammunition, some are burying or hiding carcasses from the condors.). Without community support, this opportunity to bring California condors back into the wild will not succeed.
General park information can be obtained by visiting http://www.nps.gov/pinn
Condors v. Lead Bullets News Update:
Beginning July 1, 2008 hunters will not be allowed to possess or fire lead ammunition in the “Condor Country” that generally extends from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles, CA. On December 7, 2007, The California Fish and Game Commission voted 3 to 1 to expand the state’s lead ammunition ban in an effort to protect the endangered California Condor.
In the summer of 2007, Commissioner Judd Hanna said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration asked him to resign after he clashed with the National Rifle Association over these pending condor protections. Several months later Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a bill written by Assemblyman Pedro Nava (Santa Barbara) that bans most lead ammunition, but this recent decision, goes even further.
There is now indisputable evidence the lead from bullets is poisoning the condors and other scavengers. The condor is particularly affected due to its already low population numbers and its slow birth-rate. Wildlife biologists have been working diligently to breed captured condors and release them back into the wild. But this has been a “two-steps forward, two-steps back” process as lead contamination has continued to block full condor recovery.
This new hunting regulation additionally bans hunters from using lead ammunition in .22-caliber or smaller guns. California Fish and Game Commissioners hope this new rule will encourage ammunition manufacturers to make non-lead alternatives. (To see more information on non-lead ammunition, see our links page or consult the list provided by the California Fish & Game: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/condor/docs/nonlead-ammo-ca.pdf)
Before you criticize Mr. Post’s post, perhaps you should read Assessment of Lead Contamination Sources Exposing California Condors, by D. Michael Fry, April 7, 2003.
Figure 3 summarizes Causes of Condor Mortality between 1992 and 2002. Thus:
8 from powerline or electrocution; 4 golden eagle or coyote predation; 5 lead poisoning; 2 drowning; 4 shooting; 1 ethylene glycol; 1 aspiration; 2 malnutrition; 1 cancer; 8 unknown; 11 disappeared.
Congradulations, youve been able to pass new legislation to crippel the california shooting public. Hideing behind the california condor! Of couse your not saying you cannot hunt! your just saying you will pay four times as much to hunt!!!! Why is it all hunters are sterotyped as politically incorrect idiots.This is a stupid law also my govenor folded like a cheap suit. stephen Langpaap
I am a long-time hunter, and I don’t understand — or don’t have enough information to understand — the NRA outcry about having to switch to copper bullets in the field.
The expense is minimal: so you have to buy one box of all copper bullets ($20 more?). As far as I can tell, a hunter/shooter would be operating about the same as always. You work with your rifle on the range using cheaper bullets, lead bullets in this case, and then finish off your sighting with a few of the more expensive bullets you’re actually going to hunt with.
As far as I can tell, possible effects of using copper bullets (as compared to lead) are these: 1) over a large number of shots, accuracy could begin to suffer — to a small degree, a quarter inch at 200 yards? — because of the deposits copper leaves in the rifling of the barrel; 2) you might have to use a lighter bullet, as a copper bullet of the same size as lead obviously weighs less — 165 grain v. 180 grain?; and 3) it is slightly — slightly — harder to clean a rifle after shooting copper.
None of these issues seems compelling at all. What am I missing?
Why can’t people in California be allowed to have common sense anymore? Why not just ask the hunters to bury the gut piles or remove them. Is the true hunter actually the one leaving behind all the lead bullets or is it the irresponsible people out with their friends shooting at squirrels or some other bird the cause? I would like to see the studying done on how many adult hunters can’t follow a rule when asked.
Sure it doesn’t cost a whole lot more to buy the bullets 20%-65% in some cases (depending on type of gun). However it a hassle to have to go out and search for all these new kinds of bullets for all the different kinds of guns we have. What are we supposed to do with the millions of dollars of lead bullets we hunters have accumulated from past years?
There’s got to be a better way to handle this problem then discouraging the Californian hunter from hunting in our beautiful state. Believe me there’s a lot of other laws to make in California to discourage people from living here!
Condor lead poisoning news update:
On June 3, 2008 it was reported that seven endangered California condors - about 20 percent of Southern California’s population - had recently been found suffering with lead poisoning.
Researchers first discovered the sick birds during random trappings at Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge in the San Joaquin Valley. They then sent all the poisoned birds, including a chick and its mother, to the Los Angeles Zoo for treatment, where one of the rare native birds died.
According to the news report, “U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials said the Condors were likely poisoned by eating the carcasses of animals that had been shot by hunters.”
On July 1, 2008, it will become illegal for California hunters to possess or fire lead ammunition in Condor Country. To see the full AP articles on this subject, follow the links below:
Endangered condors turning up with lead poisoning
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9468851?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
Endangered California condors turning up with lead poisoning
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9467264?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
For an interesting look at the place of the California Condor among the native peoples of the California, log onto:
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23527
“Wings of the Spirit”
John W. Foster
Senior State Archaeologist
This week the Ventana Wilderness was one of the many areas of California hit by wildfire. In this rugged area near Big Sur, deep in the back-country, the Ventana Wildlife Society has a special pen to capture and hold rare California Condors in order to test them for things such as lead poisoning. The “Gallery Fire,” consumed the road leading to the enclosure and was threatening the condor pen. With no way of reaching the endangered condors, the US Coast Guard was called in to swoop down for the rescue.
Read more about the mission here: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9673610